Board

An expert in medicinal and bimolecular chemistry, Margaret Harding was Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at ANU from 2012-18, having previously held research and academic leadership roles at the University of Sydney, UNSW, and in the UK and France. Margaret was a member of the NSW Government commissioned Strategic Review of Health and Medical Research (the ‘Wills Review’) (2010-11), the Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) review committee (2014) and was Chair of the Australian Giant Magellan Telescope Committee (2012-18). Margaret has served on a range of Boards supporting research translation, collaboration and commercialisation including the National Computational Infrastructure Board (2014-18), the National Centre for Indigenous Genomics (2013-18), ANU Enterprise (2012-18), Australian Scientific Instruments (2012-18), Bionic Vision Australia (2010-12) and NeuRA (2010-12). Margaret was also a member of the Australia Indonesia Centre Board, established to deepen networks and deliver solutions to shared challenges (2016-18).

Raji Ambikairajah has spent most of her career in the technology start-up and venture capital sectors. She is the Chief Executive Officer of the tech start-up, Folo, leading the launch of a new profit-for-purpose ecommerce platform which has attracted thousands of users. Prior to this, Raji was the Chief Operating Officer of Women in Banking and Finance where she accelerated the organisation’s growth over a 24-month period to span four cities in Australia. She has also been an advisor to the SheStarts accelerator, supporting female tech founders. Raji is an Ambassador for Room to Read, a global non-profit organisation that provides children in low-income communities with access to education. Before this, Raji was Room to Read’s Sydney Chapter Leader for seven years. Under her leadership, the chapter reached 116,480 children, grew to be the biggest in the world in terms of number of volunteers and was in the top five for fundraising. Raji is also an experienced board director and is currently also a non-executive director of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and the NSW State Library Foundation. In 2018, Raji was awarded the NSW Woman of the Year Award in the Community Hero category.

Jodie is a leader in circular economy, corporate sustainability and life cycle thinking. She is the CEO and co-founder of the not-for-profit Loop Circular Economy Platform, organising the annual ‘Powering the change to a circular economy’ conference, training professionals in circular economy concepts and working on strategic projects with leading governments, corporates and universities. Jodie has hands-on experience in implementing circular economy projects in Europe, Dubai and Australia. Major projects during her decade in Europe include developing and co-ordinating Northern France’s circular economy strategy; developing a collaborative Life Cycle Platform to support businesses, researchers and public authorities; managing an industrial ecology cluster and specific circular projects around wood, plastic, e-waste, textiles and building materials. Since returning to Australia, Jodie has quantified the benefits of the circular economy for South Australia, advised three state governments on circular economy policy, trained over 150 professionals and more. Jodie is also Circular Economy Manager at lifecycles, Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of Adelaide’s School of Civil, Environmental and Mining Engineering and Research Affiliate at Flinders University’s Australian Industrial Transformation Institute.

Trevor Danos has more than 30 years’ experience as a commercial lawyer, specialising in finance and major procurements. He is a former director of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and TransGrid and a past member of the Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Committee. Trevor is Chair of Northern Sydney Local Health District Board, Electricity Retained Interest Corporation – Endeavour Energy and the NSW Treasury Social Investment Expert Advisory Group. He is a board member of NSW Land Registry Services, as well as a member of the Australia-New Zealand SKA Coordination Committee for the Square Kilometre Array, the NSW Government Community Housing Industry Council and the Advisory Board for the ARC Training Centre for Innovative BioEngineering. In 2014, Trevor was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the community through contributions to a range of scientific, education, government, legal and charitable associations.

David Ireland is currently Partner and Chief Innovation Officer with ThinkPlace, a strategic design and innovation consultancy. He is also the Founder and Director of Radian Energy, providing renewable energy products to households and businesses across Australia. David has held a range of roles in equity and debt financing as well as research and commercialisation positions in the private, higher education and research sectors. David has applied his entrepreneurial skills and business knowledge to initiatives to address climate change and reduce waste and plastics pollution. He is an Advisory Board member with the Research Centre for Smart Green Cities at Macquarie University (2017 to date), a mentor to Hatch Aquiculture Accelerator (2017 to date) and has been a judge on X-Prize, a world leading innovation competition company (2017-19). Previous roles include General Manager International and Innovation with CSIRO (2010-15) and Manager Innovation and Commercial Development with Uniquest (2008-10). David is an Adjunct Professor in the Business, Economics, and Law Faculty in the University of Queensland. In 2018 he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for not-for-profit leadership and in 2015 he was recognised as one of the world’s top 50 most talented social entrepreneurs.

Jan McClelland is an experienced chief executive, chair and company director, working across government, private and not for profit sectors. She is currently Deputy Chancellor of the University of New England and Managing Director of Jan McClelland & Associates Pty Ltd, providing services including strategic planning, governance, organisational performance and industry codes of practice. Previous roles include Director-General of the NSW Department of Education and Training and Managing Director of the NSW TAFE Commission, leading innovation, service improvement and major technology and infrastructure projects. Jan has served on a number of Boards including as Chair of NSW Businesslink Pty Ltd (2004-12), Director Waste Services Environmental Solutions (2005-11) and Food and Agribusiness Solutions (2016), Chair of the Medical Technologies Association of Australia Code Monitoring Committee (2012-14), Director of the Central Coast Redevelopment Authority (2005-11), the State Transit Authority (2006-10) and the Rice Marketing Board (2010-13). She is currently the Independent Chair of the Gateway Network Governance Body, Chair of HeartKids Limited, member of the Audit and Risk Committee of the Judicial Commission of NSW and Director of Stewart House Preventorium. In 2015 Jan was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to a range of education, business, social welfare and community organisations, and to public administration.

Jenni Metcalfe is a highly experienced science communicator, journalist and educator.  She is the Founder and Director of Econnect Communication, established in 1995 to help scientists communicate about their research. Jenni has worked for a range of organisations including CSIRO and numerous Cooperative Research Centres. She lectures in science and media communication in Australia and overseas. She is a foundation member of Australian Science Communicators and was President 2006-07. Jenni has developed strategies and frameworks to help communicate about science and risk and delivered thousands of science communication skills workshops. She developed and created the Climate Champion program for farmers to help them communicate with peers about climate science, was part of the team to develop and test Australia’s first social indicators of river health and has worked with the Philippines Landcare Foundation to communicate conservation farming, about which she has written two books. Jenni has been a member of the scientific committee of the International Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) Network since 1996.

Tim Williams has extensive experience in urban policy, public-private partnerships and major infrastructure and transport projects at all levels of government in Australia and the UK. Tim is currently Principal and Head of Cities for ARUP Australasia and Chair of Open Cities, focusing on next generation infrastructure and the circular economy. Tim was for 6 years the CEO of the Committee for Sydney, helping to make it one of the top policy forums in Australia. Tim was Special or Specialist Advisor to 5 UK Ministers on urban renewal, local government and housing. He was CEO Thames Gateway London Partnership which secured significant investment in infrastructure for East London and on the Board of ‘London Remade’, which was established to develop market opportunities to recycle and reuse waste and resources as part of the Gateway project, using procurement processes and other strategies to incentivise business and communities. Because of these activities Tim was named by his peers in 2003 as the leading personality in Urban Regeneration in the UK. Tim had also been one of the first associate members of Tony Blair’s Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit. Tim was a member of the Australian National Cities Reference Group (2016-18), the NSW Government Tech Start-Up Eco-system Working Party (2018 to date), Chair of Infrastructure NSW Smart Cities Local Government Working Party (2018) and a Board member of several community housing providers. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Business School and Western Sydney University Department of Sociology and Geography where he was also awarded an honorary doctorate for his services to Western Sydney. He is from Old South Wales.